Tiger's Revenge - Chapter 1
by Jayfeatherrulesgirl
Summary: Tiger has joined Bloodclan. Now what?


"Scourge, Bone, and Snake are dead!" Ice's voice rang out around the alley. "I will take his place for leader! Any objections?" No cat dared to open their mouth as he glared around the area. "Good. Dismissed!" The giant black and white cat shouldered his way through the crowd.

Scourge had been killed in the battle with the forest cats. Bone had been killed by forest cats, too. But no one knows what happened to Snake. Snake used to rule Bloodclan with his brother, Ice. Some say he was killed by forest cats. Some say he ran away. But most say Ice, the leader and his brother, had killed him in the heart of battle so he could rule Bloodclan by himself. But no one knows.

"Can we go hunting?" Tiger bounced excitedly around Scar, another member of Bloodclan. He just shrugged his broad black shoulders. An ugly scar tore down his face in a crooked line, meeting the gash on his face where he had gone blind from an enemy. "You're five moons old now. Time to hunt for yourself. You should know that!" He huffed and gave her a shallow scratch on her ear. She gasped but stifled her cry of pain.

Tiger ventured out under the starry gloom of the night sky. Twolegplace stretched out in front of her, with a forest of to the side. There'd be more prey in the forest, she thought. She slightly opened her mouse to try to pick up a scent of prey. Thrush! Tiger looked around, and finally spotted the plump bird. Tiger got into a crouching position. _Just one more step_ , Tiger purred quietly at the thought of the bird that she could eat _. Snap!_ The bird fluttered off into the ebony forest at the sound.

"Hello? Who's there?" called Tiger. She glanced around quickly, but nothing seemed to be a threat. _Snap!_ Suddenly, a great beast quickly pelted towards her. Its white fangs glinted in the light of the stars. "Dog!" Tiger turned and rushed out to the alley, the horrible sight of that creature never leaving her sight. Twigs crackled under her paws, and the dog bounded nearer every second. _I'm going to die, soon_. She thought. Jaws snapped closed to her tail. She saved her breath for the chase. _A couple more fox-lengths..._ But it was too late. The dog bounded ahead and stopped her in her tracks. "No!" She squealed with agony as the dog lased out will claws at her face. A deep cut spread along her nose, causing pain. That would leave a permanent scar. But she escaped quickly, just missing another lash of the dogs' ferocious attacks. "Help!"

Tiger pelted off in the direction of home, the dark alley. Would someone help her? Scar? Not likely. Puff? The kittypet who fought to be in Bloodclan? No. No one would help her. "Help! Anyone!" The dog crunched dry leaves beneath his paws as he advanced on the terrified kit. She tried to make her paws go faster, but the roots underpaw were making it hard to maneuver. Even if she accidently tripped once, she would be prey. And no one would care.

Finally, the slowly dying light of the sun shone upon the alley. In the far wall, there was a hole in the wall where a great cat, an ancestor of Bloodclan, had used his strength to hollow out a home with his own two paws. Inside his was big, a hole big enough for many cats. A tall ceiling too. At the far side was a rock embedded into the ground, where Ice held meetings. Around it were individual little dens made my each of the clan members. The only light was from a twoleg thing Puff had brought in. It was weird: It was like a thick tree trunk, with a weird twoleg-pelt thing around it. But inside, it held a little ball of fire, like a tiny sun. But it never burned the weird tree. Twolegs are strange. There was no prey pile – members were expected to hunt for themselves. The only real reason they were in a group was so they can fight together. Nothing besides that. No friends, no shared prey, no generosity – no happiness. Bloodclan was filled with bloodthirsty cats, wanting either revenge – or their type of fun. Their type of fun was injuring defenseless, poor, innocent cats who accidently stray over the too big border meaning no harm. _That's_ their kind of fun. And Tiger was dropped into the middle of that mess by her reluctant mother and cruel father who had been kicked out of Bloodclan for challenging the leader. Tiger's future had been ruined by getting twisted up in the tangles of evil. Nothing good was to become of this helpless kit. Nothing.

"Help!" Tiger managed to summon the last bit of energy she had, and burst into the alley opening. "Ice! Scar!" All the cats slightly raised their heads to see what the fuss was about. Dawn slightly winced sympathetically at the sight of blood running down the kits' muzzle. Dawn was Tiger's older sister, dropped at the border before Tiger was born. Dawn remembered Maple, their mother, and her merciful ways, and had been punished various times for that. Dawn still had a trace of kindness in her. But Tiger was dropped too young to understand what "kindness" and "mercy" was. Their stronger sister, Dusk, Dawn's littermate, was kept in Twist's group. Their father only keeps the strongest of his litter. Dawn and Tiger only knew about each other after they were both in Bloodclan.

"What's wrong?" growled Dash, a young tom raised by Hawk. Dash's brother was Crash, both loyal members of Bloodclan. Tiger gasped for breath. "Outside… T-there was a d-dog cha-chasing after me..." Tiger gasped and collapsed on the dirt ground of the camp. There were mixed emotions. Dawn gasped with pity. Hawk, a mother of two kits, Thorn and Blaze, stood up and protectively circled her kits. Dash and Crash both shrugged. It was of no concern to them. Puff started stalking towards the small entrance, to attack the dog if it was still there. Scratch, a long-legged she-cat just stared Tiger, like there was more to the story. Fang and Storm, young sister and brother, ran and peeked through the entrance.

But then there was Ice.

"And you ran from it?" Ice growled. "An enemy came to attack you, and you let it free without any harm? Is _that_ how you show an enemy your strength? By fleeing at the sight of it?" Now Ice's voice had raised to a snarl. "But Ice, the dog would have caused more harm to her then it wou-" But Ice cut her off. "Shut up!" Ice lashed out with a vicious paw at Dawn's face, luckily missing. "You will be punished, you weakling. Vote of Punishment! Call to Vote!" Ice crouched and leapt up onto the meeting rock. "Now, all of you, will vote for her punishment. _Jobs_!" Ice's voice rang out and everyone started moving. Hawk just curled around her kits, now awake by Ice's yowling. Scar bounded to Tiger and pinned her down with one paw. Dash and Crash went over to block the entrance, as if Tiger could escape Scar's mighty paw. Dawn whimpered loudly and shrunk into a corner. Scratch sat up and licked her chest fir awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Puff purred and crawled into a corner, emerging with a mouthful of stones. Eleven, to be exact. Puff spat them out, and Storm and Fang started drawing circles in the dirt. Four, for each a different reason. Finally, everyone gathered around the four circles. Even Dawn, who was forced by rule.

"First circle!" meowed Ice. Dash rose up on his hind legs and clawed the air. "Death!" Tiger tried to yowl, but couldn't under the pressure of Scar's paw. "Crash, may you please?" Ice tapped his claw impatiently while Crash drew a shape resembling a claw over the first circle. "Second circle!" Crash gave a vicious swipe in the air with one claw. "Injury!" This time, Dash drew a jagged line above the circle, resembling a scar.  
"Third circle!" Now Tiger was scared. What else could they possibly do to her? Puff dug his claws into the ground. "Banishment!" he triumphantly growled. Crash marked a big X over the circle. Now there was one circle left. Suddenly Dawn walked up to Ice. "Mercy!" she called out. Puff gave an amused snort. Crash and Dash mrrowed over it till their voices hurt. Ice looked down amused at Dawn. "Mercy? Mercy for being a traitor to my rules? Mercy for letting an enemy go free without a Scratch?" Crash looked at Ice. "What do you want us to do, boss?" Ice thought for a long while. "Mercy." He finally decided. All the cats looked shocked. "Do mercy. Oh, and Dawn, if you lose, you will regret everything." Dash reluctantly drew a star over the fourth circle. "Time to vote!"


End file.
